128 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch. 
ing his way through the bush in our rear, on 
the other side of the clearing whence we had 
come; and imagining that this was another 
tusker altogether and not the dead one’s companion 
who had circled round, I snatched my rifle from 
my gunbearer and rushed back, followed by my 
trackers, Ntawasie and Simba. Though we 
gradually approached, up-wind, to where we could 
distinctly hear the noise of his movements in the 
long grass, he must either have seen or heard us, 
for when we were within thirty yards of him, he 
suddenly charged us with lowered head, bursting 
through the bush like a runaway railway engine, and 
carrying a mass of broken branches and sundered 
vegetation on his tusks. When he was within 
twelve yards of me, I fired a right and left in 
quick succession out of my double *5 77, striking 
him in the forehead, but though momentarily 
staggered by the impact, he recovered and 
came thundering on! As there was no 
time to reload, and it was quite impossible to snatch 
my light rifle from my gunbearer behind me or get 
out of the elephant’s way owing to the dense bush, 
I felt that my fate was irrevocably sealed. In this 
awful moment, when I had given up all hope, and 
expected within a few seconds to be trampled out of 
recognition, a bullet screamed past my head and 
struck the elephant in the eye, making him swerve 
